The expired film and some new perspectives

Hello there,

Long time since we saw each other.

The pictures are from this summer. I originally wrote this text some time ago, but a move from our old apartment to a house here in Umeå got in the way. So. I just want to announce that I am back today. I'm also back today after a rather disappointing day out. I had the concept ready, the ideas ready and the equipment fully set up for a day out in freshly fallen snow. The result was not a single exposed image with my Linhof. But what the heck, that's how it is sometimes. Don't give up Andreas.

So I feel it's time to share some thoughts. So what's new? Well, I finally got myself a fridge.

A fridge is not something everyone has? someone might ask. And, yes, I would guess that most people have a fridge at home for dairy products and such, myself included. But what I now have, that I didn't have before, is a dedicated fridge for proper movie storage. This is something that should have been done a long time ago, and I am happy to say that this is now finally sorted out.

I was thinking about the stock of fresh and old film that I have. Sheet film, direct film (Polaroid type of film) and a lot of expired medium format film (120 format). In addition, several round metal containers of black and white Orwo 35mm bulk film (30m raw length) that expired in 1991. Now I wonder where my bulk film loader could be somewhere...

One thing to consider when shooting with expired film is that sensitivity drops over time. A rule of thumb is to add one step in exposure per decade. So, in this case, when I wanted to test a batch of Kodak Ektacolor Gold II 160 Professional that expired in February 1996, I had to guess the new likely sensitivity of the film. A film that expired about 25 years ago would be compensated by at least plus 2.5 steps. And given that this is originally an ISO 160 film, it should now be exposed as if it were an ISO 25 - 32 film. However, I decided not to go that far and settled for plus 2 steps as a basic setting. So I set my light meter to ISO 40 and went from there. Good to have both "braces and belt" sometimes.

In this case, there was also a handwritten warning on the original film packaging made several years ago that this round was slightly looped. That warning, in turn, was made long after the movie had gone out. Thinking about it, I remembered that I was getting reasonably good exposures, but slightly blurred negatives, with my Hasselblad at the time without compensating for the age of the film. Perhaps this type of film was not as sensitive to aging as one might think. Anyway, that was the reason for not going all the way to plus 2.5 steps as a baseline.

It would be so nice if I could use my old stock in some of my ongoing projects. At first, before I got my much talked about fridge, I thought my old stock was lost. But now, after seeing the results of my first test, I am hopeful. Yes, the movie is a little loopy, but considering it went out about 25 years ago, I have to say the result is good.

The more I thought about all my expired 120 film the more inspired I felt to try it in panoramic photography. I wanted to use my 4x5" Linhof Master Technika. The only problem was that I didn't have a film holder for medium format film to use in my large format camera. A little detective work later I tracked down a Sinar Panorama. It's a large format film holder that provides 6x12 cm negatives. Not for the faint hearted to load and use, but once everything is set up it runs like a clock.

I thought it would be fun to share some of the first test results with this configuration.

An expired (1996) film roll of the expired Kodak Ektacolor Gold Professional next to the Sinar 6x12 film holder and manual.

My Linhof Master Technika with the Sinar Panorama 6x12 film holder mounted.

Ready to display the negatives on the light table.

Close-up of some of the exposed Kodak GPF negatives with some light leakage on the film roll during the loading or unloading procedure.

Veiled negatives. But with exposure compensation, they still have enough dynamic range. My goal is to eventually make good scans.

A test scan with a flatbed scanner and some post-editing in Photoshop to get a feel for what can be done. The image shows a rock wall on the edge of a clearcut a few kilometers west of Junsele.